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The Dominion of Hastur
The people who in ancient times came to rule what is now known as the Dominion of Hastur, came from the Astartes, and built castles and cities, and apparently were renowned as farmers, producers and ranchers, and even weavers and jewelers. Then the giants came, and their strongest castle was merely a target for the ill tempered brutes who became hill giants. The breadbasket of the Astarte empire became a giant larder for the monsters, who ate their way through grain stores, ranches and orchards, as well as their caretakers. Those who survived, took their weapons and the horses and livestock they could and went out into the hills. To try and survive, defending their property from the giants, and fleeing when they could. This was a loosing battle. They were not strong enough to defend their cattle and stop the giants from killing them. The giants had gotten used to their early gluttony and found it harder and harder to catch up with the smaller people and their fast horses. Their chief aimed at making a compact with the elders of the humans. According to the contract the giants would not eat any people, would leave them 50% of the new births of livestock, and 50% of production of food, and would not eat any of the dead humans buried in their traditional manner (left on platforms of their highest hills facing the heavens). The humans in return were not to keep weapons, cast magick (any magician would be given to the giants), not rebel or build walls and give the giants 50% of their production. The giants also promised to protect their resources from other invaders. There were brief periods this worked; where orcish raiders would attack and the hill giants would hold off invaders. But frequently it would not. The giants usually would push the agreement too far, taking more than their "fair share"("They were holding out"), or eating an entire village ("Uhhh...they had weapons!"), or decimating the graveyards of their dead ("Nope. It was buzzards or animals."). Every time a rebellion would start to brew, the giants would seek peace, but never make reparations for what was lost. The elders however had their own plan. When that first compact was signed, they offered their youngest and strongest a choice - live in subservience to those who destroyed all their grandparents had built or survive as rebels and raise their own children to fight and survive and prepare for the day of the giants reckoning. Every generation afterwards, would send the rebellious, the magically talented, and the strongest, along with the strongest and wildest horses into exile, to find the places where they had hidden weapons and artifacts they had recieved from the Astartes. There the Children of Hastur were born, living of the land, they grew lean and fast. They adopted the ways of the centaurs who surrounded them, also hunted by the giants. There they were armed by the Urkfeldians, who sought to create a buffer against the giants. They raided nearby communities and stole what they needed to. They trained with war magick and sword and spear and bow. And they bred prodigiously fast and strong horses. For millenia, the fastest and strongest and hardest to control people of the proto- Hasturians became faster and stronger and harder to control. They knew they couldn't fight all of the giants until the circumstances were right. Then the call came, after generations of subservience, the giants planned on taking to sail, and supporting their brethren as they came under assault, but aimed at liquidating their own herds. The elders found out about this and planned on throwing a massive feast to thank their captors for their protection. The giants suspected no guile, as their population had been sufficiently cowed. But they poisoned the sheep and the beef and the swine and the beer and the breads. And lit a signal fire two days before. They mistook how much it would take to poison the giants, but the giants were sufficiently inebriated to hamper their defenses. The Children of Hastur overpowered and killed every giant, the found at the feast, and hunted their compatriots elsewhere in the plains and hills. Reunited, the elders expected their wayward children to defer to their wisdom and patience. Alas, a culture raised in rebellion and combat do not listen to their elders. They refused, and when they were ordered to, they killed the cowardly and simpering fools who bowed to the giants. They allowed the younger of their cousins to herd the remaining cows, and goats and sheep, provided they now paid tribute to the Children of Hastur, instead of the giants. Now instead of producing jewelry and food and fruit and livestock, the only thing that the Dominion of Hastur produces is soldiers, archers and worlds best horses. The People of the Dominion of Hastur divide themselves into the herdmen (the weak and ineffectual farmers and herders) and the Children of Hastur. There is intermingling between the two, as the Children will take the strong and capable they find amongst the herdsmen, and "mount" any attractive members that meat their eye. Likewise the Children of Hastur abandon their weak or infirm children, to live as herdsmen. Culture: Religion: Economy: Prominent Places and People: Races: Human - Elves Half Elves Halflings Rare Races: Dragonborne Centaurs